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CINCINNATI — Bryan Price’s first official game as a major-league manager wasn’t really one for
his scrapbook.

His Cincinnati Reds were shut out on opening day for the first time in 61 years. They managed
but three hits. They even failed to score in the eighth when the St. Louis Cardinals played like
the Bad News Bears in the field, botching two made-to-order double plays. The Reds had runners on
first and third with nobody out and couldn’t score.

What’s a manager to do?

But for all the misery, this was a terrific way for a new manager to discover the limitations of
the job. Johnny Cueto pitched like the ace he has been, striking out eight and allowing three hits
in seven innings. Problem was, one of the hits was a seventh-inning home run.

Regardless of who was calling the shots for the Reds — Price, previous manager Dusty Baker,
Sparky Anderson, Bill McKechnie or Vern Rapp — there were no strings to pull to turn this 1-0 loss
into a Cincinnati win. On some days, on a lot of days, a manager is left with moves that have as
much impact as whistling in the wind.

“It’s disappointing, but there will be other disappointments along the way, and we certainly
have to be resigned to that,” Price said.

The helpless feeling of having no real say on who wins or loses is part of the reality of
managing. Baker became a scapegoat for his failures as Reds manager, particularly in the postseason
— divisional series losses in 2010 and 2012 and a loss in the wild-card game in 2013. But great
performances usually make great managers. Adam Wainwright and three relievers pitched lights out
and St. Louis, and manager Mike Matheny, got the win. So it goes.

Price, the Reds’ pitching coach for the previous four seasons under Baker, is not new to a
big-league dugout. He has never managed, which might have made him seem like a risk to some
skeptics, but even they couldn’t have blamed him for this one.

When Price was asked afterward whether it took him a couple of innings to get his feet wet as a
manager, he was polite enough not to say that was a stupid question.

“It’s different to manage, there’s no doubt about it,” Price said. “At this level, this is the
beginning of my 15th year. So I didn’t get really overwhelmed or terribly caught up in the fact it
was my first game. I was just trying to not be unprepared, and I have a great staff around me of
coaches that I don’t think would ever let that happen. So once I got the fruit basket, it was on,
and it was great.

“There’s nothing like a regular-season game. There’s nothing similar in spring training. In
spring training, you don’t intentionally walk guys and you may not be the same type of team
offensively as you are during the regular season. You’ve got a much smaller roster to work with.
There are a lot of differences between the two. So just getting this first one under my belt was
big for me.”

It might have gone better for him if new leadoff man Billy Hamilton hadn’t struck out four
times, another thing that a manager has no control over. Ownership let last year’s leadoff man,
Shin-Soo Choo, go and gave the job to the kid, who had better be ready.

The Reds also started the season with eight players on the disabled list, another thing that is
out of a manager’s control. When you get down to it, there are more things out of his control than
in it, a fact Price well knows after being a major-league pitching coach since 2001.

“I really try not to make this about myself and my experience,” Price said. “It’s really about
what we do as a team. We have a lot of expectations here. We played excellent baseball and came
real close today. The end result wasn’t great, but we have 161 more to go.”